Informant testifies against SNM

Former gang member tells court about dealings in prison

LAS CRUCES — A gang member turned government informant testified in federal court Tuesday about the inner workings of the Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico gang inside the state’s prisons.

Guadalupe Urquizo testified about delivering the “paperwork,” or orders, to kill an inmate in 2014 with a shank created from a piece of inmate Rudy Perez’s walker. Perez, along with Anthony Ray Baca, Carlos Herrera and Daniel Sanchez, are on trial in U.S. District Court for racketeering.

Urquizo testified he agreed to help the FBI because he was “tired of the backstabbing.” Under tough questioning from the attorneys for four fellow gang members, Urquizo said his plea included having him serve a state and federal sentence concurrently, which would cut years off his time behind bars.

“The more help you give, the more people that cooperate, the better your sentence,” said Perez’s attorney Ryan Villa.

“Yes,” Urquizo replied.

Jurors got to hear part of a prison phone call taped in March 2017 in which Urquizo talks about knowing another gang member was “wired” and secretly recording inmates for the FBI inside the prison. He was asked about meetings with the FBI’s lead investigator for the racketeering case.

“They told you they had you,” Villa said. “Yes,” Urquizo replied. Testimony was interrupted Tuesday morning when defendant Perez began coughing uncontrollably and paramedics were called to the courtroom. Perez suffers

from epilepsy and other chronic health problems and had been sent to the hospital Monday after reporting he had a seizure. He returned to court Tuesday with a surgical face mask.

A paramedic who examined Perez told the judge it appeared Perez had a “coughing fit” but they could not determine if it was a seizure without a blood test. His blood pressure and sugar were normal, the paramedic said.

Perez’s attorney, Justine Fox-Young, told the judge her client was “very vulnerable and frail” as well as “spacing out” and not able to assist with his defense.

“I move for a mistrial,” Fox-Young said.

Judge James Browning denied the motion. “He’s sick but I haven’t noticed him in and out as much as defense counsel says,” the judge said.

When testimony resumed, Urquizo testified about his criminal history in and outside prison. Urquizo said it began in 1998 when he went to prison for stabbing a man in Clovis. That same year he joined the Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico and assaulted a corrections officer for “disrespecting the gang.”

Urquizo testified he did what the gang told him to do.

Villa said when he decided to cooperate with the FBI late last year, “You joined their gang.”

“This is not a gang,” Urquizo said. “This is a whole different thing.”